


In From The Cold

by DenseHumboldt



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, But I am Canadian, F/M, Family Fluff, First time reylo writer, Fluff, Gift Fic, I am a marshmallow, Romantic Fluff, So I am guessing, Thanksgiving Dinner, fic prompt, please be kind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2019-09-22
Packaged: 2020-10-26 10:22:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20740652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DenseHumboldt/pseuds/DenseHumboldt
Summary: Rey's braining is slowly turning to mush in University. Ben wants to rescue her for the weekend but the only place he has to offer is his mother's house for Thanksgiving.





	In From The Cold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GarageDump](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GarageDump/gifts).

> This fic is a big fluffy "have a good week" for my friend who I got into Reylo. This isn't a ship I normally write for so please forgive my inadequacies.  
love love love DH

Rey had her head on her book. She knew people said they liked the smell of books. Maybe old books were different. They smelled of dust and crispy vellum that made sounds like peeling when you turned the pages. Textbooks smelled of plastic and glue. They made her hungry for something she couldn't explain. Hunger was an uncomfortable feeling. She arranged Skittles on her desk like swirling constellations. Birthing more from the tiny slit she had made in the packet. The package that crinkled like plastic and smelled of fake fruit and glue. At the center was a lucky green one, two smashed together like a half split cell.

Her brain was currently mush as she organized the candies on her desk. Her vision was almost blurred with the pressure of the book's spine. The page her head rested on was where she had given up on the day. Her finger searched out through the doubling effect of letting the book scrunch her face and tried to pick the real from the unreal. At least, feeling the smooth curve of the candy under her finger gave her a minor feeling of accomplishment.

A shadow fell on the edges of her vision. A heavy shadow. A shadow she recognized. The hollow clip of a coffee cup resting in front of her book. A subtle plea for her to lift her head.

"When was the last time you slept?"

She had never met someone who whispered in the library like Ben Solo whispered. When other voices went higher, hissed through lifted tongues Ben's voice dropped low. Like a melody. Like an ocean. She only ever wanted to speak to him in the library.

She didn't move her heavy head. She kept pulling skittles into a nebula. Even when she gave up she was always thinking of the stars.

"You ask me when I last slept but you bring me coffee."

"It's not my job to fix you." His voice floated from above her. The shadow moved and she wondered if Ben was going to pet her head like a cat. She saw his hand reach. The lucky skittle disappeared between his pinching fingers. Rey found the will to sit up.

She gripped onto his wrist like a lamprey.

"No," she grit through teeth as she tried to pull his hand back to her. "You can't have that one."

"Payment for the coffee," he said easily dragging her up with the movement of his wrist.

"Ben, no," She panted. Why did he have to be so big? She put all her weight against his wrist. "That's the lucky one."

"You don't need luck," his hand reached his lips. Rey had both hands around his wrist, her legs on either side of his thigh as the green double skittle disappeared into his mouth. She pressed her forehead to the back of his hand. She made a frustrated sound.

"I hate you," she muttered against the soft skin.

"No, you don't," his voice rumbled. His hand free hand hovered just behind her head. She could feel him. She could always feel these almost touches. Her roommate in Year One would have described it as a disruption in her aura. If Rey closed her eyes she could still smell essential oils and hear the Ke$ha playlist.

She let go before she got comfortable.

"Why are you here?" She sat back in her chair.

"What are you doing for the holiday?" He looked at her, his eyes searching. No matter how long she knew Ben she could never shake the feeling he was trying to catch her lying. Weighing everything she said against some internal barometer. It used to offend her. Now it just made her ache that he had so little trust inside him.

She shrugged. He knew she had nowhere to be. No one to miss her. It would be her and her space heater. Maybe some instant ramen.

"I hadn't got that far," she turned back to her book, wary of his gaze. She shifted the skittles and picked up the coffee. 

"Come home with me."

She choked on her first sip.

"What? No." 

"Why not?" He thumped her back as she coughed.

"Your family all are professors. Organa will be the next Dean," she croaked between inhales of air.

"So? You aren't in their classes. You aren't even in Han or Leia's departments."

"What if I am one day?" She put the coffee down and started packing up her books. Retreating was the best option.

"Are you planning to transfer to PoliSci or Women's Studies?" Ben, sensing she was running, ate one of her skittles.

"No." She put her bag down and started sweeping skittles into her palm. Ben was picking out the green ones as fast as she could gather them up. He knew they were her favorite. She sheltered them with her hands, turning her body away from him. "Stop it."

"Are you planning to move to Archeology?" He continued picking at her stash.

"I have heard Solo gives good lectures," she needled him. She knew his father's popularity on campus bothered Ben. He didn't like people knowing his distinctive last name.

"He lies with a textbook in one hand."

"What about Skywalker?" She was in Luke's class. She wanted to become an astronaut just like him. His lectures though were lackluster. He always kept his eyes on his notes. It was his class that was defeating her now. She felt helpless and the idea of seeing him at Ben's family home gave her the cold chills.

"He never comes."

"What will we tell them?" She looked at him significantly. She didn't know what they were. He brought her coffee, knew her schedule but he never made the move. He didn't seem to want her the way she wanted him.

"The truth."

"And that is?" Rey raised her eyebrows high, her breath lost somewhere between her stomach and her armpit. Not where breathing belonged.

"We're friends. I am allowed to have friends over."

"You don't have friends."

"If you talk to me like that they'll believe we're friends."

* * *

The place stunk of old money. Each bend in the road once they passed the gate felt like they were getting farther away from the real world. It was hard to hate it though when you knew they would be dining on their dime. Rey's stomach rumbled.

They had left early before she could have breakfast. The drive was short, the world outside cold blue and warm orange. It wasn't just dinner Rey learned. It was a whole day. She couldn't backtrack on her word. It was too late.

The heater in Ben's car didn't work. Rey huddled into her coat and wondered if she would ever feel her toes again.

"So," she broke the silence. It had been friendly but as they got closer her nerves were chattering. "Why are you studying Law when your parents are in Archeology and Women's Studies?"

Ben glanced at her. His hand in its black leather glove tightened on the wheel.

"After the second divorce, I started to care more about the law than being a pilot."

"Second divorce?" Rey parroted it was like English wasn't making it to the center of her brain. Ben laughed. It was humorless. A defense mechanism. It said back off. Rey was bad at backing off.

"My parents divorced for the first time when I was five, remarried when I was ten and got divorced when I was fifteen."

"Ben," Rey felt lost for words. Solo and Organa were like old love superstars on campus. Everyone sighed when they got coffee together. Even Rey had looked longingly once or twice when Professor Solo would drop by his wife's classroom.

"At least they were consistent," he glanced beneath the frost on the windshield and began to turn the car down a long road.

"Wait, are they married now?" Rey braced as the road bent. Ben's car made a rattling noise. The house was in the distance. All brick and white columns, like out of a Hallmark movie.

"Leia says they are married for Thanksgiving."

A light came on in the dash and the car stalled. Ben hit the steering wheel in frustration. Rey reached out without thinking and touched his shoulder.

"It's fine we can walk."

They got out of the car and Ben took off with long strides towards the house. A muscle in his jaw ticked. Rey walked quickly to keep up. It was as cold outside the car as inside.

"It's okay, Ben." She caught up with him. She had no mitts and her hands were cold. "I will fix it."

Ben stopped and turned to look back at the car, abandoned in the scattered leaves.

"I just know Han is going to talk about this all day." He looked at her. At her pink nose and her hands clenched in her sleeves. He took her hand in his and popped in his pocket. He grumbled, "you should have mitts."

"I don't own mitts," Rey scrunched her nose at him and tucked her other hand into the warmth of his pocket. He put his arm around her to accommodate her strange sideways walk. She smiled up at him. "Besides, I like talking about cars. I will talk to your Dad about them."

They reached the low porch and Rey took out her hands so she could walk up the steps with a bit of dignity. Ben rang the bell.

"Don't you have keys?" Rey asked with a cocked head. Wasn't this his boyhood home?

Ben coughed. "I lost them."

The door opened, warm air poured from the house. A massive man was in the doorway.

"Leia, the boy's here," he roared down the hall. Shadows moved behind him.

"Hey," Ben slid past as the man held the door open. Rey nodded nervously.

"Where's your car?" The man asked closing the door. Ben kicked off his shoes and braced Rey as she slid off her boots. That was when the man seemed to see her for the first time. "I am Chewie."

"Chewie?" Rey repeated shaking his hand and craning her neck up to look at his bearded face.

"I see Ben has told you all about us. You must be Cindy."

"Cindy?" Rey repeated looking at Ben from the corner of her eye. Ben started walking down the hall. He barely glanced at Chewie.

"Don't listen to him. He is making fun of me because I didn't tell them you were coming."

"Ben," Rey admonished taking off down the hall after him, leaving Chewie chuckling. At the same time, his name came from the end of the hall.

"Ben," a grey-haired woman smiled as she ducked out from the kitchen. She looked so relieved. Rey wondered if they were late. It wasn't even 9 A.M. 

Rey knew the moment Leia's eyes settled on her. She felt it. She felt keenly the surprise and a little delight.

"You brought a friend," she observed a little dumbstruck. Ben passed her into the kitchen.

"You told me to," he muttered. Leia turned trying to keep both Rey and Ben in her eye line.

"I know, I did but you never do." She turned to Rey who was smiling awkwardly hoping the parquet wood would open beneath her. Leia reached out her hand. "I am Ben's mother, Leia."

"Rey," she shook her hand. "I am sorry. Ben invited me-"

"It's fine. There is always lots, in case Luke comes. It's a family trait keeping their mouths shut." Leia gestured her into the kitchen. 

Chewie must have cut through another door because he was now behind a counter, as he turned Rey realized his hair was longer than his beard held back in beautiful twisting braids. Professor Solo was next to him, chopping vegetables. Ben was by the coffeemaker. His coat was shrugged off and laid over a chair in the breakfast nook.

"In the Organa house, the men cook and the women drink," Leia picked up a scotch and gestured to the wall behind Han. "Pick your poison."

Ben turned and handed her a mug of coffee. She took it feeling even more warmth seep into her hands.

"Coffee is fine," she smiled.

"Do you drink?" Leia asked.

"Leia," Ben and Han said in unison. Rey's smile became a little tenser.

"Yes," she answered. Her eyes flickered to Ben. His sleeves were already rolled up, his hair tucked behind his ears. She felt warm again. Crystal clinked against the heavy ceramic of her mug and Leia tipped a mouthful of scotch into her drink.

"You have earned it. We aren't an easy family."

Rey awkwardly raised her mug in cheers. She felt like she was under a microscope. She wondered if Ben felt it too. His eyes met hers. He rolled them and she laughed. Her coffee tasted thinner. Warmer. Like fire slipped between the cream and sugar.

"So, anyone going to explain the girl?" Han asked gesturing with his knife as he cut potatoes into wedges. The starch soaked the black apron with white stains and he looked more like a mechanic than a chef.

"Cut them smaller than that, Han" Leia sat on the other side of the island. She plucked carrots from the bowl in front of him. "This is Rey, Ben's friend."

"Ben's friend, eh?" He looked over at his son. Ben kept his head bent his hands busily scrubbing dirt from a leek. Rey could see the tip of his ears go pink. Han reached behind him and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl. He put it in front of Rey. "She's skinny."

Rey's stomach growled as she picked up the apple.

"Then she's come to the right house," Leia topped up her drink and reached for another carrot slice. She winked at Rey. "If we're eating we can't argue."

There was a clink as Han rapped Leia's rings with the flat side of the knife. "Stop stealing from the troops, General."

"Ask Ben about his car," Chewie said over his shoulder. The intense eye contact between Han and Leia was broken as Han looked over his shoulder at his son.

"What happened to your car?"

"It made it to the driveway," Ben answered. He was peeling mushrooms into a bowl. Rey itched to help. She felt like a bent hood ornament just sitting there with her coffee.

"We are less than an hour outside of the City. It should have made it through the front door into the kitchen," Han gestured with the knife. Ben looked aggravated. He was hunched away. He couldn't see the worry in Han's eyes the way Rey could.

"I will fix it. It's okay," Rey smiled. Han looked at her like he had forgotten she was in the room.

"You know cars?"

"It's a Civic the only thing easier than fixing them is stealing them," Rey answered without thinking. She went red as the room went quiet. She could feel Ben's smile from the way his shoulders relaxed. Han burst out in laughter. He gave her a crooked grin. 

"I like this girl."

"The hard bit will be if it needs parts-" Rey shifted her mug. She was a little pleased with herself.

"Don't worry about that. Chewie runs the garage in town. Ben, leave the mushrooms and go push the car."

Ben sighed and started to wipe his hands when Leia put down her drink and raised her hands. "No, I am two scotches in I need breakfast."

"I'll make breakfast, Ben go push the car."

"Han Solo, you couldn't make breakfast if your last name was Dunkin Donuts. The only one making omelets will be Ben. You and Chewie go push while I turn on the parade."

Han grumbled, pulling off his apron. Chewie wiped his hands and they both lumbered from the room. Leia's glittering eyes moved from Ben to Rey and she grinned.

"Parade time," she smiled as she left the room.

It was like Ben could breathe again.

"Will you let me help you?" Rey asked. He turned and carried the mushrooms and the leek to the island.

"It's fine."

He started slicing down the vegetables. He was precise, organized. He breathed slowly. She wondered if he was calming himself.

"I am sorry they're like this," he muttered. Rey hopped off the stool and went to the fridge. She found the eggs.

"Like what?" She was bemused. He had wanted to feed her, bring her somewhere warm for the holidays. He always forgot what being home was like.

She put the eggs down beside him and took up Chewie's abandoned knife.

"Rings or slivers?" She speared a pepper, cutting the end off and pulling out the seeds. She looked mildly offended at his silence. "Not chunks?"

"Dice it. Small as you can."

He let her help him. He watched her move through the piles of veggies as he started to crack eggs in a bowl.

"So, are omelets your specialty?"

"I have made a lot of them."

It was a loaded sentence. Everything in this house seemed armed to blow. Rey let it hang. She knew how not to pick at wounds even if she was bad at backing down.

She heard the click of a gas stove starting. The small shiver of heat as the flame lit. Outside she heard groaning and hollering as Ben's car inched closer to the garage.

"Maybe I should help them? They're old." Rey leaned over the island to see if she could catch a glimpse of them through the rippled glass of the front hall. Ben snorted.

"They'll love that. Go tell them." He reached around her for the small bowl of leeks. Rey reached out to shove him in the chest. He wrapped his arm around her waist so she was pinned facing away from him beating on his forearm as he stacked the bowls of vegetables. "Stay here instead. You can set the table."

She let herself relax against him. He cradled her for a moment, his cheek against hers. She liked it here, she realized.

* * *

Rey had never eaten so much, or seen the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on such a big screen or felt like more of a referee. It was a day of nerve-wracking firsts coupled with the ever nagging suspicion she didn't belong there. Ben was normally quiet. He was sullen here. Except when they were alone.

Then his hands always seemed to find her. He wasn't like this at school. Unsure. Off-balance. Needy. 

After breakfast, Leia hustled Han and Chewie back into the kitchen. She had begun hinting that Rey and Ben should stay the night. The car could be fixed tomorrow. Family time was precious. Han snorted but Chewie shared a knowing look with the small woman.

That's how they ended up in Ben's bedroom after lunch. Rey hadn't known what to expect. An airplane theme wasn't it.

"What? No racecar bed?" She asked sitting on the long cramped twin. The springs in it were loud as she let her butt bounce twice. Ben laughed. He hovered on the edges of the room, looking around like he hadn't seen anything in a decade.

"I was too tall by the time I was ten," he picked up a plane and turned it over in his hands. "I haven't been in here since the Second Divorce."

"Why not?"

"I went to live with Han in the City. I was closer to school there. All this seemed to belong here," he shrugged.

"Are you okay here?"

"It seemed bigger when I was fifteen," he ducked under the hanging planes to flip through his comic books.

"Fifteen, huh?" Rey asked.

"Yeah, why?" Ben turned around to see her lying back on his bed her hands searching between the mattress and the bed frame. With ice-cold clarity, he remembered what he had stashed there. He crossed the room in two long strides.

Rey made a triumphant noise as her hand emerged from between the headboard and the bed, a well worn glossy page torn from a magazine in her hand. He reached for her hand pinning it above her head. The mattress groaned under his weight.

"Ben, I want to see. Let me look," she laughed and pleaded.

"Don't you know its rude to go through other people's stuff. Are you a scavenger?" He let himself weigh her into the mattress. Pin her until he crushed the laughter out of her and she wheezed a little.

"You are so heavy," she grumbled moving her knees to kick him off. The springs were conducting a symphony. Beneath them, the sound of the parade got louder. Ben's face heated up.

He wrenched the paper from her hand and tucked it in his back pocket. Rey rolled on her side rubbing her ribs, still laughing.

"You must squash your girlfriends."

"That's why you never meet them," he smiled wryly.

"I just thought you were ashamed of me," she sat up. The springs groaned more. She looked at the floor. "They'll never believe us."

"No, but I hope Leia will be too embarrassed to mention it." Ben opened the door and ushered her out. She walked past him. Her hands flicking out quickly to grab the paper. She went tearing down the stairs Ben hot on her heels.

She got to the bottom of the stairs and unfolded the paper. She could hear Ben thundering behind her but she was immobilized. He nearly collided with her as he reached the bottom. Silent tears of laughter streamed down her face.

The lingerie model had horns and an eyepatch scribbled on them. In hasty writing Leia had written "Ben, I raised you better than this. Use the internet. XOXO Mom"

Ben took it from her shaking hands. He crumpled it in his hand and went slouching into the kitchen.

* * *

Wine flowed freely at dinner. The day had made everything seem like a disaster waiting to happen but in the dimly lit dining room, elbow to elbow, Rey felt safe and warm.

"Tell me, Rey," Han asked around a swallow of red wine and stuffing. He gestured between them with a fork. "Are you studying Law like Ben?"

"No," Rey swallowed hard trying to make a sound come out around her turkey and mashed potatoes. "Physics"

"How did you and Ben meet?" Leia asked. Unlike her husband, she picked at her food slowly. She ate like Ben.

Rey took a deep breath. Her eyes found Ben's. He wasn't eating. He was staring intensely at her.

"Inter-department mixer," she said into the echo of her wine glass.

"Ben goes to those?" Han looked at his son in shock.

"No," Ben said flatly.

"There was a scavenger hunt. My team needed a copy of Plato's _The Republic_ to win." Rey smiled at the memory. "Everyone ran to the Library. I started pounding on dorm rooms. Ben was the only one home on a Friday."

She remembered the slightly bedraggled Ben opening the door, her neck craning back to look at him. She had asked in a gulping rush for the book and he had looked stunned for a moment. Then he had reached with his long arm and pulled it from somewhere in the room. She had stuttered her thanks before the door shut on her with a snap.

"And he gave it to you?" Han asked looking at his son with a crooked impressed grin.

"Yes, before he closed the door in my face." 

"I hate _the Republic_," Ben muttered into his plate. His eyes flicked up and bore into Rey. She wanted his parents to understand how much she loved that story.

"Then what happened?" Leia asked refilling her glass.

"It took me three tries to return it."

"I told you to keep it."

"He stopped answering the door." 

"So you kept it?"

"She left it in my backseat."

"How did she get there?" Han raised his eyebrow at his son.

"Civic," Rey and Chewie chimed in at once. Ben was slouching down in his chair as Han laughed hard.

"You need to get rid of that thing," Han tore apart a bread roll. "And when was the last time you checked the oil?"

"The light isn't on," Ben mumbled.

"You aren't supposed to wait until it's on," Han and Rey moaned in unison. Rey laughed. Ben dropped his fork.

Leia's eyes darted between her son and husband. She reached a warm hand to Rey.

"Han can't talk. He has been 'repairing' the same Mustang since Ben was gestating."

"It's a classic," Han interjected.

"It's a rustbucket," Leia countered down the table.

Ben stood up suddenly as the air crackled. A familiar argument, Rey could feel it building in her bones. He walked off.

"Ben," Leia called after him.

Rey froze. Her anchor was gone. He was upset. A knot in her stomach as she wondered if it was her he was mad at.

She got up as she heard the back door close. She followed him, wine churning in her stomach.

She burst out into the cold air on the back porch. It was dark, the lawn beyond was blackness and stars. No Ben in sight. A man was leaning against a pillar, his eyes turned upwards.

"You're Luke Skywalker," Rey announced thickly into the air. The man turned to look at her. 

"How do you know me?"

"Everyone knows you. You've been to space."

"Is that all?" His eyes returned to the horizon. "Wasn't that hard. It was just there waiting for me."

Rey's fuzzy brain tried to figure out why he was out here.

"And you teach one of my classes." Rey needed to find Ben but she was standing here dumbly trying to make small talk with his uncle.

"I thought I recognized you," he said absent-mindedly not looking at her.

"No, you didn't. You never look up," a day of drinking had loosened Rey's tongue. Right now, she didn't know who she was madder at herself or Ben's family.

"Are you drunk right now?" He turned to look at her.

"Yes," She sat on the porch.

"Did Leia get you drunk?"

"Yes," she hung her head with her elbows on her knees.

Luke paused as if weighing his next question.

"Do you love my nephew?" 

"Yes," she sighed. Wasn't the cold air supposed to sober you up? Luke laughed, small humorless. Like Ben's laugh. Had Ben seen him?

"Are you going to tell him?"

"No," she breathed deeply. Her head was spinning.

"What a disappointing answer. The boy needs to hear it more often." 

"Are you going to go inside?"

"No."

"Now you are the disappointing one."

Behind them, the door opened.

"Is everything okay?" Leia poked her head out and they turned in unison. Leia sighed, "Luke."

"Hi, Leia" he smiled at her.

"Luke, get your butt in this house."

Luke held his hands up in surrender and walked past Rey.

"Rey, Ben's in the treehouse. Can you go get him while there is still pie?" Leia leaned her head on the doorjamb. She looked tired.

"Yes, I can."

Rey jumped to her feet and walked into the unknown. She hoped the treehouse would reveal itself as she drew closer.

It turned out everything in the yard seemed to slope towards one massive tree. It dented the ground with its deep roots. Above Rey, the stars were hidden by the canopy of leaves. She took a deep breath before she began to climb up. Feet were blocking her entrance. She could see them massive, looming above her. She kept climbing, she reached above her head and felt his knee. It was cold outside and she didn't have a jacket. The wine wasn't keeping her warm anymore. Ben Solo was making her cold. He flinched as she used his big leg to pull herself up between his feet. First her hand then her elbow. Ben made a protesting sound as she crawled through the treehouse opening onto the raft of his body.

"Rey," he half groaned, half-choked as she climbed up him.

"You came up here to sulk." She brushed back the hair that fell into her eyes. The treehouse was cramped with them in it. Not made for adults with long legs.

"Where's your coat?" Ben asked his hands rubbing her arms.

"I followed you. I didn't take my coat."

"Then what took you so long?"

"Luke was on the back step."

Ben groaned.

"He never comes."

"Ben, come back inside."

He was still laying down. She was on top of him. His hands moved over her again and again. Where he touched was warm. She liked him so much. He was odd and angry but he did nice things when no one was looking. He made her feel normal. He made her laugh.

"I shouldn't have dragged you here."

"Why am I here?"

"I don't know."

"Did I make you mad? Do you not like that story?" His jaw worked and he couldn't look at her.

"It makes me sound like an asshole."

"I like that story."

His arm wrapped around her as he sat up. She moved back so she was straddling his lap. She tucked her hands under the heavy black wool of his coat.

"What else do you like?" He asked his eyes drifting to her mouth.

"I like it here," she moved her hands over his shoulders. "And I like you."

"Rey," he said her name like it was half question, half prayer. She kissed him before the wine made her cry.

The arm around her back tightened and his cold bare hand came up to frame her face. She kissed his mouth, his chin, his cheek.

"It's cold," she murmured against his lips as he kissed her back. "Let's go inside."

His thumb brushed over her breast, fingers spreading wide over her rib cage.

"Let's go to my car." His mouth moved to her neck as Rey rolled her head to the side. Her teeth starting to chatter.

"The heater doesn't work."

Ben swore as he sunk his teeth into her, tongue soothing where she knew she would bruise.

"I'll fix it tomorrow."

"I am cold now."

"I don't want to listen to them argue about the good old days. I want to stay here with you."

"Inside has pie," She counter-offered. She tried to curl deeper inside his coat.

"I only want to eat you," he pulled her closer as he returned to her mouth. His hands were cold. She flinched when he pushed them beneath the hem of her shirt.

"Ben, I am cold," she kissed his cheek.

"I will warm you up," his hands moved under her shirt. She wanted him to but she knew hypothermia was a dangerous cockblock.

"I want pie," she kissed him firmly on the mouth. She backed her way down his long legs, foot searching for the first rung of the ladder. He sat looking at her a little dazed.

Once her feet hit the ground he started to slide out after her. With Ben clinging to the trunk it no longer looked so massive. He kicked off landing with practice on his feet.

He put her hands in his pocket. Putting his arm around her so she could shuffle close to him as they made their way back to the house.


End file.
